VC Dired is invoked by typing C-x v d and entering the name of the directory to display. By default, VC Dired gives you a recursive listing of all files at or below the given directory which are currently locked (for CVS, all files not up-to-date are shown).
You can change the listing format by setting vc-dired-recurse to nil, then it shows only the given directory, and you may also set vc-dired-terse-display to nil, then it shows all files under version control plus the names of any subdirectories, so that you can type `i' on such lines to insert them manually, as in ordinary Dired.
All Dired commands operate normally in VC Dired, except for `v', which is redefined as the version control prefix. That means you may type `v l', `v =' etc. to invoke `vc-print-log', `vc-diff' and the like on the file named in the current Dired buffer line. `v v' invokes `vc-next-action' on this file, or on all files currently marked.
The new command `v t' (vc-dired-toggle-terse-mode) allows you to toggle between terse display (only locked files) and full display (all VC files plus subdirectories). There is also a special command, `* l', to mark all files currently locked.
Giving a prefix argument to C-x v d now does the same thing as in ordinary Dired: it allows you to supply additional options for the ls command in the minibuffer, to fine-tune VC Dired's output.